Saturday, March 26, 2016

This ancient hymn was borrowed by the Byzantine Rite from the Liturgy of St James, and is sung at the Great Entrance in place of the Cherubic Hymn, when the Divine Liturgy of St Basil the Great is celebrated on the morning of Holy Saturday. This particularly impressive Old Church Slavonic version is sung by the choir of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow.

Let all mortal flesh keep silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and in itself consider nothing of earth; for the King of kings and Lord of lords cometh forth to be sacrificed, and given as food to the believers; and there go before Him the choirs of Angels, with every dominion and power, the many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim, covering their faces, and crying out the hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

This text became familiar in the English-speaking world through the work of a mid-19th century Anglican cleric named Gerard Moultrie, whose hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” is in large measure based upon it. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, a great collector and scholar of folk songs, set Moultrie’s version to a French carol tune known from its place of original simply as “Picardy.” It is here sung by the choir of Somerville College, Oxford.